Thor: Ragnarok’s Tessa Thompson, Karl Urban and director Taika Waititi chat about the film at Comic-Con

Thor: Ragnarok showed its official trailer at the Marvel Studios panel at the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday and afterward, we got a chance to speak to Tessa Thompson, who plays Valkyrie, Karl Urban, who plays Skurge, and director Taika Waititi. They told us about their characters, the humor in the film and more. Check out what they had to say below and scroll down to watch the brand-new trailer.

Tessa Thompson told us about joining a cast of this size, both in the film and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She said, “It’s really exciting. I mean, for me it’s like a modern day — it’s like being part of a company of actors. And now, particularly in the next phase of Marvel where you see these characters intersecting, and the same with Avengers: Infinity War, and you see that suddenly Thor is with all these folks, this new group of folks, you get the sense that you as an actor might get the chance to work with someone you really admire and that you root for from afar. So that’s been tremendously exciting for me. And then to get to work with Taika, I’m just such a fan of his work. And then to work with Chris and Mark, who have been playing these characters for a long time, that are imbuing them with a sense of freshness and newness. You know, they’re always trying to reach for something that is exciting. It could be easy to spend seven years in a franchise and just sort of do the same thing, but they’re always reaching for the next thing that feels like it’s evolving. And that makes it feel like it’s a living organism to be a part of.”

We asked her about Valkyrie sort of giving up her Asgardian heritage in this film. She said, “In a way, you find her in a place where she’s fallen from grace, I think. I won’t say exactly why, but she’s left Asgard and left that life behind her, and a part of what she’s left behind her is this desire to fight for something that she believes in. And so, I think there’s something really neat about meeting Thor and hopefully that spirit being reinvigorated in her, because it’s so essential to who she is, I think, in the source material.”

Urban told us a bit more about the character he’s playing. He said, “I play a character called Skurge and he’s operating the bifrost because Heimdall has gone missing. And then all of a sudden, Hela comes through and Skurge has a decision to make. He could die or survive, so he chooses to align himself with her and I think he makes a deal with the devil. And that’s when the rubber meets the road.” After the deal, he told us, “It’s a working relationship. He’s her henchman. He does the dirty jobs. And that sort of is something he has to – it plays on his conscience. It crossed a certain moral line and that’s the fun thing about this character and his arc in the movie.”

Waititi told us he was really excited for audiences to see the second trailer. He said, “We spent so much time on it. All the effects are coming through and it’s looking amazing.” He talked about the humor in the film, saying, “It was hugely important. I appreciated what the first two Thor films did. I knew that Marvel invited me in to do this because of my sense of humor and my tone and sensibility. I’m not known for giant superhero action films, so I guess I’ve got to take what I do normally. The reason they brought me in was that tone, and run with that.”

Waititi told us about where the Hulk is these days. “He’s on the planet of Sakaar with Jeff Goldblum’s character, the Grandmaster is the ruler of this whole planet. Hulk is a gladiator in the contest of champions. Everyone on the planet loves him, appreciates him. He’s celebrated, whereas Hulk often feels like when he’s on Earth, everyone hates him because he’s so destructive. Everyone runs from him. He’s quite comfortable on this planet.”

In Marvel Studios’ Thor: Ragnarok, Thor is imprisoned on the other side of the universe without his mighty hammer and finds himself in a race against time to get back to Asgard to stop Ragnarok – the destruction of his homeworld and the end of Asgardian civilization – at the hands of an all-powerful new threat, the ruthless Hela. But first he must survive a deadly gladatorial contest that pits him against his former ally and fellow Avenger – the Incredible Hulk!

Thor: Ragnarok will feature the return of Chris Hemsworth as the God of Thunder himself, with Tom Hiddleston as Loki, Mark Ruffalo as the Hulk, Idris Elba as Heimdall and Sir Anthony Hopkins again portraying Odin. The film also stars Cate Blanchett as the death-obsessed Hela, Tessa Thompson as hero Valkyrie, Jeff Goldblum as the eccentric Grandmaster and Karl Urban as Skurge. Also among the cast is Sam Neill, reuniting with Taika Waititi, who directed him in his previous film Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and his Jurassic Park co-star Jeff Goldblum. Finally, as teased at the end of his solo film, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange will team with the God of Thunder to deal with Loki.